“within days” the explanatory “Note” from the P.C. Ecclesia Dei?

On the site Sacri Palazzithere is a splendid article by . It is in Italian. I will see if I can get it translated for you, because it is worth reading. However, these are not exactly empty days for me right now.

I must immediately share something at the very bottom of the piece:

The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (within days there will come out – it’s already ready – a note from Ecclesia Dei which will better explain its implementation) is an important sign post on the route to this return to a common orientation. The little modifications brought into the pontifical ceremonies in these months are too. These, in fact, are faithful to the rules and therefore to a liturgical criterion that comes down to us directly from the 2000 year history of the Church.

13 Responses to “within days” the explanatory “Note” from the P.C. Ecclesia Dei?

Dear Father Z, can it really be ( LOL I didn’t mean for that to rhyme )? Are we really on the verge of turning the corner in the RIGHT direction regarding the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass? Has the Lord thus heard the cry of the Liturgically poor?

I, for one, am hopeful. My only fear is that if Rome is unwilling/unable to deal with recalcitrant bishops, what are we to do?

Thanks for your update, and for all your efforts at maintaining this blog to keep us informed of what is happening. Truly, this site has been most helpful, and has given–me–a greater sense of focus as to reality and rumor regarding the Tridentine Mass and its universal indult.

Even the comments at the bottom, in Italian, are positive! “You are great, Pope Benedict! We’re right with you, especially the young people!” “We’re right behind you!” “He is going in the right direction!”

Ok let me make sure I am hearing this right? The forthcoming document concerning Summorum Pontificum is going to positively state that mass ad orientem is preferred because it shows the unity of the two rites? Or will it actually mandate the ad orientem posture?!! Please don\’t get my hopes up just to be dashed.

I just now also read on another website what Pope Benedict XVI plans to wear for Christmas Midnight Mass, and the return of the Papal throne with seven steps leading up to it for the occasion. On Christmas Day, the Pope is going to wear a cope that originally was John XXIII\’s….so that means probably it\’s one of the huge Papal copes…and not the little ones that just come down below the knee (you know, the type JP II favored).
I also read of alot more ornamentation, and magnificent crosses etc. being used. Even rumors of a campaign in Rome and elsewhere among Catholics pressuring for a return of the Sedia Gestatoria!!!! Can you believe it!! Mostly all young people who want everything back!!!
More and more, I have the feeling that past popes of recent years (I won\’t name names), tried to appeal to the people with theatrics, and though this stirred their emotions, it didn\’t stir their spirits. Benedict XVI brought back a tiny bit of the glory of the Papacy, and suddendly in Rome and elsewhere they\’re clamoring for more!!! Despite Franco Zefferilli\’s comment that the Pope shoud dress down (like Paul VI and his successors), the popele seem to love all the Papal magnificence Benedict\’s re-introducing. It\’s bringing people back in touch with Catholic traditions forgotton for 40+ years.
I read that the Tridentine Latin Mass is really, really popular in Europe, and is growing rapidly…especially among the young. It\’s a tsunami of devotion that the liberals did not expect….and very much resent.
I advise everyone to watch/tape the Pope\’s Mass of Midnight on EWTN. From what I read, there will be some additions which will have everyone who loved Catholic tradition and the liturgical traditions of the Papacy cheering, both today for Midnight Mass, and tomorrow for the \”Urbi et Orbi\” blessing.

Here’s the issue, folks. Like the present General Instruction of the Novus Ordo Missal, there are all kinds of “preferreds,” “shoulds,” “encourageds,” etc. Unless there is a “must,” “shall,” “will,” or “cannots,” there won’t be any motivation on the part of the prideful to change their Messy Mass ways and plough the correct Liturgical row. It will continue to be status quo for the Liturgically oppressed Faithful.

I certainly do wish that Pope Benedict XVI would declare thru the Ecclesiaa Dei Commission or on his own authority that “ad orientam” is the preferred way to celebrate Mass. Just think of it. If it is ordered to celebrate Mass “ad orientam” as the general rule, then we can get rid of all the horrid little wooden table or marble slab “versus populum” altars and start using the magnificent Catholic high altars again. It would be wonderful to think of the majectic altars in all the great Catherdrals and Basilicas of Europe, and all the parishes everywhere using the beautiful altars again, and discarding the terrible table altars (which looked 100% Protestant).

“I certainly do wish that Pope Benedict XVI would declare thru the Ecclesiaa Dei Commission or on his own authority that “ad orientem” is the preferred way to celebrate Mass. Just think of it. If it is ordered to celebrate Mass “ad orientem” as the general rule, then we can get rid of all the horrid little wooden table or marble slab “versus populum” altars and start using the magnificent Catholic high altars again. It would be wonderful to think of the majestic altars in all the great Cathedrals and Basilicas of Europe, and all the parishes everywhere using the beautiful altars again, and discarding the terrible table altars (which looked 100% Protestant).”

Truth be told, Matthew, I refer you to the reply I gave above. A mere “it is preferred” from the Pope is merely leaves in the wind. Nobody cares.

Regarding altars, some of the mainline Protestants were putting on their “face the people” worship shows long before the Buggernini got a hold of ours. He even included Protestants to help him tinker the Novus Ordo together. I think there were a couple of others types on his commission because a lot of the arrangements of the Novus Ordo “worship space” look so much like a Masonic Lodge. Isn’t that such an “interesting coincidence?”

There’s a sermon I sometimes give (for years now) with the point that sometimes some people like to see the priest facing them for Mass, if that’s what they think he is doing, for the reason that they can then start to put him up on a pedastal in their own minds. The priest is then tempted to make himself into a showboat, and he is encouraged. Then, when they are giving their adoration to him, and he sins, even by taking in their adoration, they then have the right to sin according to the rationalization that since he is up on a pedastal and yet he sins, well then, we can sin too. It’s kind of a reverse pelagianism.

Instead, when everyone is ad orientem, facing the Sacrifice who Is the rising Son, none of this goes on. This makes such people uncomfortable, for they are bereft of an “excuse” to sin.

This dynamic, if you will, has everything to do with why some people and some priests must ever so emotionally insist on versus populum.

To bring up an old subject: ad orientem only leaves the priest “lonely” only inasmuch as he may more easily come to know Christ’s abandonment on the Cross, an exterior and only seeming abandonment. What an intense prayer of communion with the Father: “My God! My God!” Yet, in all of that, the priest should have a strong sense of presenting the whole Church to God the Father. Hardly lonely. For those who are with the priest, that is, the congregation, they will not feel abandoned by the priest if they also know that he is presenting them to God the Father. The priest does this when he acts in Persona Christi. And that is when the people are not left behind, but are following Christ (a commandment of His).

Such following of Christ, ad orientem, can be difficult, for this involves carrying the cross. Think of it by way of analogy, like an “extreme sport” (I’m not trying to be blasphemous here…), in the sense that the active participation, the superintense, graced openness to reception of the blessing of God is precisely the greatness of ad orientem. If it is true that it is the “little old ladies” (a phrase used disparagingly by those who know nothing) who carried the day, every day, for these past decades, then know that only they are brave enough for such an “extreme sport”. Now the young people think, “If granny can do it, so can I.” Well, yes, with the grace of God, so can we all.

The great irony is that so many Catholics could believe there is nothing for them in the old Mass and thus have no curiosity about it. Or as one person put it: “The new Mass seems to have no mystery about it; the old Mass has too much.”

That old saw about “participation” may be revealed as nothing more than laziness on our part.

I am thankful for the gift of Pope Benedict! I am thankful for
the gift of the extra ordinary form of the Roman Rite! I am
also thankful that we can finally talk in public about loving
Mass ad orientem!

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